1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to musical instruments of the type having a neck and a fingerboard or fret board and, more particularly, to musical instrument strings and a method of instruction utilizing colored markings disposed on the musical instrument strings to identify fingering positions.
2. Description of the Related Art
Students of stringed musical instruments, such as the guitar, bass guitar, banjo, violin, cello, and numerous other types of stringed instrument of the general type having a neck and a plurality of strings extending along the neck, are faced with difficulty in learning to play the instrument. Such instruments are generally played by using the fingers of one hand to press the strings against a fingerboard or a fret board, thereby producing different notes depending on the fingering position along the strings. Much of the difficulty in learning to play this type of instrument is in learning which finger positions are to be used to play which notes. Compounding this difficulty is the challenge of learning to read printed music, and to identify the notes of the printed music to be played.
Various training devices and methods have been devised to help students in learning to play stringed instruments. However, often a specialized training instrument is employed, or a specialized attachment for the instrument required, or a separate guide, such as a fingering chart. Such a device as a fingering chart, while helpful, doesn't direct a player's fingers to a specific fingering location on the stringed instrument. Attachments for placement on the neck of the instrument have been used to indicate fingering positions for various chords. Such attachments, however, may not be universal in their application, and are prone to difficulty in attachment to an instrument and may be prone to causing cosmetic damage to the instrument. Specialized instruments, such as a guitar having a plurality of lights, such as LEDs, embedded in the fret board for indicating fingering positions, may be costly and may teach the student to become reliant on the particular training instrument, rather than facilitating the student's growth into other instruments.
A method for teaching a student to correlate musical notes to the fingering positions on a stringed musical instrument that does not require a specialized instrument (or an attachment to the instrument, or a separate device for guidance) leaves the student free to learn on an instrument of his choice and carry the technique and skills from one instrument to another. Thus, musical instrument strings and a method of instruction solving the aforementioned problems are desired.